Post and During SARS-Cov-2 Syndrome in Children

Abstract

Background: SARS-Cov-2 is a highly infectious and contagious disease caused by a co-ronavirus called severe coronavirus-acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV2). Children with SARS-CoV-2 infection are often asymptomatic or have relatively mild symptoms, often with cough and fever. Today, despite High value information about the manifestations and risk factors for SARS-CoV-2, there is limited information on post-SARS-Cov-2 syndrome, especially in children. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the symptoms of SARS-Cov-2 syndrome in children with SARS-Cov-2 in Afzalipour Hospital in Kerman. Methods: The present descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 122 children with SARS-Cov-2 in 2020-2021. A checklist including information on age, sex, duration of hospitalization, need for admission in intensive care units, clinical symptoms, mortality during or after discharge, underlying illness, and need for readmission was completed by reviewing patient records and inter-views. The collected information was entered into SPSS software version 26 for statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of patients was 46.64±40.39 months. 49.2% of patients were female and 50.8% were male. The most common symptoms were fever (84.4%), weakness (49.2%), cough (34.4%), nausea/vomiting (34.4%), dyspnea (27%), and diarrhea (26.2%). In 122 children, 115 children (94.3%) had symptoms for less than one month, one child had symptoms for one to two months, and 6 children (4.9%) had symptoms for a long duration (more than two months). The most common clinical signs in children with post-SARS-Cov-2 syndrome were weakness (33.3%) and dyspnea (33.3%). Conclusion: Persistent symptoms of post-SARS-Cov-2 syndrome are less common in children with SARS-Cov-2 disease in Iran.